220 NORTH AMERICAN SCELIPHRON (hYMENOPTERA) 



The types of califor7iicus Saussure have not been seen, but are 

 presumably at Geneva. 



The following description has been made from fifteen females 

 and the same number of males, selected from a large number of 

 specimens and covering as wide a distribution as possible. 



Metallic blue black or blue green, sometimes with purple reflections, espe- 

 cially on legs and abdomen; head and body except abdomen thickly pilose, 

 pubescence silvery on sides of frons, dark on third and fourth ventral segments 

 of female abdomen ; remainder of body covered with fine dark sericeous hairs, 

 more or less concealed by pilosity, except on legs and abdomen. Wings varying 

 from pale to dark fuliginous. 



Female. — Head across the eyes broader than thorax across the tegulae; 

 clypeus sloping abruptly at sides down to depressed areas of frons, somewhat 

 flat in center with surface closely punctured and covered with dark erect hairs 

 and finer dark sericeous hairs; these are best seen from the side and vary in 

 density with individuals; anterior margin of clypeus black, extending laterally 

 under the eyes, armed near the middle with three blunt teeth (the median tooth 

 generally the smallest), and a small lateral process on each side varying in size, 

 but never as large as the central teeth ; a row of strong black hairs projects for- 

 wards over the teeth; posterior margin concave, bending round at the sides to 

 join the clypeal sutures, which form the lateral boundaries of the clypeus; cen- 

 tral portion of clypeus with a median line appearing as an irregular shiny strip; 

 surface of frons channelled on each side of the antennal elevation and clypeus ; 

 these depressions together with the antennal region are closely punctate, the 

 punctures Iseing somewhat confluent and smaller than those on the clypeus with 

 correspondingly smaller hairs; there is also a fine silvery pubescence on the 

 sides of the frons seen best from behind; antennal region divided by a distinct 

 median elevated line extending from between the antennae to within a short 

 distance of the median ocellus ; intra- and circum-ocellar areas finely punctured 

 and with small erect black hairs; surface of vertex rather sparsely punctured 

 with a few long black hairs on a slightly raised area behind the ocelli; occiput 

 covered with fine punctures and shorter black hairs, sometimes densely seri- 

 ceous; genae clothed with long erect black pilosity, interspersed with fine seri- 

 ceous hairs thickest along the hinder margins of the eyes and the lower j^ortions 

 of the genae, and giving these parts a coppery reflection when seen from l)ehind; 

 inner margins of compound eyes more concave than those of males and more 

 convergent posteriorly than anteriorly; antennae with scape and pedicel blue 

 black or blue green, generally metallic with a few black hairs mainly on inner 

 side and surface covered with very fine dark hairs; flagellinn or filament dull 

 sooty black or greyish black, owing to the presence of minute recumbent hairs; 

 first segment of the filament usually slightly the longest, the remaining seg- 

 .ments very gradually decreasing in length until the last, which is usually a little 

 longer than either the penultimate or ante-penultimate; last segment tapers 

 distally but is somewhat squarely trun(!ate at its distal end; mandibles long, 

 narrow, curved, without teeth, ratlier bluntly pointed, sometimes worn down 



